I've only read the first book. I had a friend who actually got mad at me for seeing the second movie on opening night without having read the book. So I told her that with the CMU workload, I only had three hours a year to spare for Harry Potter.

Ack, it isn't that important. There are plenty of other books out there that are more worthy of your valuable time. I think the major thing is that it's incomplete, so debates are still open. If it turns out to have the lasting power of LotR and is still popular 50 years from now, then I'll bug more people to read them ...to their kids.